Yamato Toys
Yamato USA (f.k.a. Toycom, Inc.) is the North American division of the Yamato Co., Ltd. with headquarters in the otaku capital of the world... the Akihabara district of Tokyo, Japan. For over ten years, Yamato USA has proudly served otaku on this side of the world with a wide offering of miniature collectible figures, PVC and die-cast action figures, as well as poly-resin and PVC statues inspired by the hottest titles in Japanese anime, manga, and video game properties. One of these titles happen to be the Metal Gear series. Metal Gear Solid - Konami Doll Collection Yamato's first involvement to the Metal Gear series is the release of Metal Gear Solid collectible dolls as part of the Konami Doll Collection range. Each 1/6 scale doll are fully articulated, have removable attire and comes with weapon accessories. The collection only contained 4 dolls, there are Solid Snake, Meryl Silverburgh, Liquid Snake and Sniper Wolf. Rumours that there were plans to release a 5th doll for the series, being the Cyborg Ninja but they turned out to be false. The dolls were released sometime in 2002. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Konami Figure Collection Yamato's next line of Metal Gear related merchandise was a set of trading figures, based on characters that appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Each figure came inside blind boxes and came with display stands. There are 7 figures to collect, plus a secret 8th figure. The set contained, Solid Snake, Raiden, Hal Emmerich, Revolver Ocelot, Olga Gurlukovich, Metal Gear RAY and a Gurlukovich Soldier. The secret figure was a silver version of Raiden. The set was released in 2004 and were re-leased in separate packaging. The set was also re-released with all figures appearing in silver, to match the secret Raiden figure. The silver version of the Solid Snake figure was re-released as part of the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Premium Package. The differences between this and the original is the display stand and Snake is adopting a USP instead of a SOCOM. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance - Konami Figure Collection Yamato decided to release a sequel to the Metal Gear Solid 2 figure collection, this time with the Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance logo on the packaging and display stands. Like the first set, the set contains 7 figures and secret 8th figure. The set contained Iroquois Pliskin, Solidus Snake, Fortune, Vamp, Fatman, Emma Emmerich and Mr. X. The secret 8th figure was another silver version of Raiden, this time wearing his scuba mask. The set was released in late 2004. This is Yamato's last involvement with the Metal Gear franchise. Konami Figure Collection Bootlegs Like most merchandise related to anime and video games, various Chinese copies and bootlegs have been made, some of them happen to be copies from both the Metal Gear Solid 2 Konami Figure Collection series. Yamato has been informed about this, and warn their customers about them, their bad quality and how they harm the company due to not receiving any profit. They also inform anyone not to buy them as customers deserve to get their money's wroth of figures and not have it wasted away by badly made knock offs. A bootleg figure can be told apart from it's original counterpart by the cheap PVC material, being unable to fit onto their display stands and poor paintwork. As well as being sold cheaper than the official figures. Bootlegs are commonly found and sold on eBay. Category:Companies